Page 99, line 14. _Susan P----_. This is Susannah Peirson, sister of
the Peter Peirson to whom we shall come directly. Samuel Salt left her
a choice of books in his library, together with a money legacy and a
silver inkstand, hoping that reading and reflection would make her
life "more comfortable." B----d Row would be Bedford Row.
Page 99, line 12 from foot, _F., the counsel_. I cannot be sure who
this was. The Law Directory of that day does not help.
Page 99, foot. _Elwes_. John Elwes, the miser (1714-1789), whose
_Life_ was published in 1790 after running through _The World_--the
work of Topham, that paper's editor, who is mentioned in Lamb's essay
on "Newspapers."
Page 100, line 15. _Lovel_. Lovel was the name by which Lamb refers to
his father, John Lamb. We know nothing of him in his prime beyond what
is told in this essay, but after the great tragedy, there are in the
_Letters_ glimpses of him as a broken, querulous old man. He died in
1799. Of John Lamb's early days all our information is contained in
this essay, in his own _Poetical Pieces_, where he describes his life
as a footman, and in the essay on "Poor Relations," where his boyish
memories of Lincoln are mentioned. Of his verses it was perhaps too
much (though prettily filial) to say they were "next to Swift and
Prior;" but they have much good humour and spirit. John Lamb's poems
were printed in a thin quarto under the title _Poetical Pieces on
Several Occasions_. The dedication was to "The Forty-Nine Members of
the Friendly Society for the Benefit of their Widows, of whom I have
the honour of making the Number Fifty," and in the dedicatory epistle
it is stated that the Society was in some degree the cause of Number
Fifty's commencing author, on account of its approving and printing
certain lines which were spoken by him at an annual meeting it the
Devil Tavern. The first two poetical pieces are apologues on marriage
and the happiness that it should bring, the characters being drawn
from bird life. Then follow verses written for the meetings of the
Society, and miscellaneous compositions. Of these the description
of a lady's footman's daily life, from within, has a good deal of
sprightliness, and displays quite a little mastery of the mock-heroic
couplet. The last poem is a long rhymed version of the story of
Joseph. With this exception, for which Lamb's character-sketch does
not quite prepare us, it is very natural to think of the author as
Lovel. One of the pieces, a familiar letter to a doctor, begins
thus:--
My good friend,
For favours to my son and wife,
I shall love you whilst I've life,
Your clysters, potions, help'd to save,
Our infant lambkin from the grave.
The infant lambkin was probably John Lamb, but of course it might have
been Charles. The expression, however, proves that punning ran in the
family. Lamb's library contained his father's copy of _Hudibras_.
Lamb's phrase, descriptive of his father's decline, is taken with a
variation from his own poems--from the "Lines written on the Day of my
Aunt's Funeral" (_Blank Verse_, 1798):--
One parent yet is left,--a wretched thing,
A sad survivor of his buried wife
A palsy-smitten, childish, old, old man,
A semblance most forlorn of what he was--
A merry cheerful man.
Page 100, line 17. "_Flapper_." This is probably an allusion to the
flappers in _Gulliver's Travels_--the servants who, in Laputa, carried
bladders with which every now and then they flapped the mouths and
ears of their employers, to recall them to themselves and disperse
their meditations.
Page 100, line 9 from foot. _Better was not concerned_. At these
words, in the _London Magazine_, came:--
"He pleaded the cause of a delinquent in the treasury of the Temple so
effectually with S. the then treasurer--that the man was allowed
to keep his place. L. had the offer to succeed him. It had been a
lucrative promotion. But L. chose to forego the advantage, because the
man had a wife and family."
Page 101, line 10. _Bayes_. Mr. Bayes is the author and stage manager
in Buckingham's "Rehearsal." This phrase is not in the play and must
have been John Lamb's own, in reference to Garrick.
Page 101, line 23. _Peter Pierson_. Peter Peirson (as his name was
rightly spelled) was the son of Peter Peirson of the parish of St.
Andrew's, Holborn, who lived probably in Bedford Row. He became a
Bencher in 1800, died in 1808, and is buried in the Temple Church.
When Charles Lamb entered the East India House in April, 1792, Peter
Peirson and his brother, John Lamb, were his sureties.
Page 101, line 11 from foot. _Our great philanthropist_. Probably John
Howard, whom, as we have seen in the essay on "Christ's Hospital,"
Lamb did not love. He was of singular sallowness.
Page 101, line 9 from foot. _Daines Barrington_. Daines Barrington
(1727-1800), the correspondent of Gilbert White, many of whose letters
in _The Natural History of Selborne_ are addressed to him. Indeed it
was Barrington who inspired that work:--a circumstance which must
atone for his exterminatory raid on the Temple sparrows. His Chambers
were at 5 King's Bench Walk. Barrington became a Bencher in 1777 and
died in 1800. He is buried in the Temple Church. His Episcopal brother
was Shute Barrington (1734-1826), Bishop successively of Llandaff,
Salisbury and Durham.
Page 102, line 1. _Old Barton_. Thomas Barton, who became a Bencher in
1775 and died in 1791. His chambers were in King's Bench Walk. He is
buried in the vault of the Temple Church.
Page 102, line 6. _Read_. John Reade, who became a Bencher in 1792 and
died in 1804. His rooms were in Mitre Court Buildings.
Page 102, line 6. _Twopenny_. Richard, Twopenny was not a Bencher, but
merely a resident in the Temple. He was strikingly thin. Twopenny was
stockbroker to the Bank of England, and died in 1809.
Page 102, line 8. _Wharry_. John Wharry, who became a Bencher in 1801,
died in 1812, and was buried in the Temple Church.
Page 102, line 22. _Jackson_. This was Richard Jackson, some time M.P.
for New Romney, to whom Johnson, Boswell tells us, refused the epithet
"Omniscient" as blasphemous, changing it to "all knowing." He was made
a Bencher in 1770 and died in 1787.
Page 102, foot. _Mingay_. James Mingay, who was made a Bencher in
1785, died in 1812. He was M.P. for Thetford and senior King's
Counsel. He was also Recorder of Aldborough, Crabbe's town. He lived
at 4 King's Bench Walk.
Page 103, line 1. _Baron Maseres_. This was Francis Maseres
(1731-1824), mathematician, reformer and Cursiter Baron of the
Exchequer. He lived at 5 King's Bench Walk, and at Reigate, and wore a
three-cornered hat and ruffles to the end. In April, 1801, Lamb wrote
to Manning:--"I live at No. 16 Mitre-court Buildings, a pistol-shot
off Baron Maseres'. You must introduce me to the Baron. I think we
should suit one another mainly. He Jives on the ground floor, for
convenience of the gout; I prefer the attic story, for the air. He
keeps three footmen and two maids; I have neither maid nor laundress,
not caring to be troubled with them! His forte, I understand, is the
higher mathematics; my turn, I confess, is more to poetry and the
belles lettres. The very antithesis of our characters would make up a
harmony. You must bring the Baron and me together."
Baron Maseres, who was made a Bencher in 1774, died in 1824.
Page 104, line 13. _Hookers and Seldens_. Richard Hooker (1554?-1600),
the "judicious," was Master of the Temple. John Selden (1584-1654),
the jurist, who lived in Paper Buildings and practised law in the
Temple, was buried in the Temple Church with much pomp.
* * * * *
Page 104. GRACE BEFORE MEAT.
_London Magazine_, November, 1821.
This was the essay, Lamb suggested, which Southey may have had in mind
when in an article in the _Quarterly Review_ he condemned _Elia_ as
wanting "a sounder religious feeling." In his "Letter to Southey"
(Vol. I.), which contained Lamb's protest against Southey's
strictures, he wrote:--"I am at a loss what particular essay you had
in view (if my poor ramblings amount to that appellation) when you
were in such a hurry to thrust in your objection, like bad news,
foremost.--Perhaps the Paper on 'Saying Graces' was the obnoxious
feature. I have endeavoured there to rescue a voluntary duty--good in
place, but never, as I remember, literally commanded--from the charge
of an undecent formality. Rightly taken, sir, that paper was not
against graces, but want of grace; not against the ceremony, but the
carelessness and slovenliness so often observed in the performance of
it."
Page 108, line 12 from foot. _C----_. Coleridge; but Lamb may really
have said it.
Page 108, foot. _The author of the Rambler_. Veal pie with prunes in
it was perhaps Dr. Johnson's favourite dish.
Page 109, line 10. _Dagon_. The fish god worshipped by the
Philistines. See Judges xvi. 23 and I Samuel v. for the full
significance of Lamb's reference.
Page 110, line 16. _C.V.L._ Charles Valentine le Grice. Later in life,
in 1798, Le Grice himself became a clergyman.
Page 110, line 19. _Our old form at school_. The Christ's Hospital
graces in Lamb's day were worded thus:--